HAMILTON — The township Democratic Party called yesterday for the all-Republican township council to investigate the unnamed “intermediary” named in the indictment returned against Mayor John Bencivengo on Thursday.

The indictment charges the mayor, also a Republican, with extortion, attempted extortion, money laundering and two counts of violating the federal travel act.

“It has been well over seven weeks since the mayor was charged and the unnamed intermediary/bagman has yet to be identified,” the party said in a statement. “This council has failed to take steps within its power to take action to address the risk of a potential felon on the taxpayers’ payroll. That failure has led to an increased lack of public faith in the current municipal government’s ability to operate fairly, openly and to the benefit of its citizens.”

Bencivengo has sworn his innocence and vowed to remain in office.

According to the indictment, a federal cooperating witness — previously identified as Hamilton school district insurance broker Marliese Ljuba — wrote a $5,000 check for a “cherry bedroom set” in the name of the intermediary’s spouse. The intermediary deposited the money without the spouse’s knowledge, and withdrew it in small increments over several weeks.

The council could not investigate operating solely on rumors, said Kevin Meara, president of the township council.

“Unfortunately, the FBI doesn’t call me up and say, ‘Hey, Kevin, this is our next move,’” he said last night. “There have been rumors and it’s difficult to operate on rumors. You have to be careful.”

The Democrats’ statement asked for council to not “unfairly besmirch the reputation of any persons,” but to investigate whether the intermediary is a township employee.
“We strongly believe that the council has a sworn duty to investigate the impact of ongoing threats to the taxpayer dollar from an unnamed individual under the scrutiny of a criminal investigation that has now yielded a criminal indictment against the mayor and led to subpoenas for at least two current and former township employees,” the statement reads.

According to the partially censored executive session minutes of the April 26 council meeting, officials addressed rumors that a department director might be involved.
“As we know, it is all conjecture and rumors, but we’re hearing a department head at least,” Meara asked, according to the minutes. “There was a rumor on the street that there was a director who was not coming to work. That would lead you to believe ... .”
Meara never finished the sentence.

Later in the minutes, township attorney Lindsay Burbage addressed the idea of forming a committee to address any township role in the investigation.

“All you have is innuendo and rumor and that there may be a problem in one of the departments,” Burbage said. “But you’ve had no information that inspections have slowed, the inspectors are on strike, the money is missing. There is no concrete evidence of any problem. In fact, for that matter, there’s not even innuendo that there’s a problem.”

Yesterday, Councilman Dave Kenny said no investigation can really occur until more facts come to light.

“Obviously the Justice Department is keeping the name secret for a reason,” Kenny said. “For us to interfere with a federal investigation will be foolhardy and would accomplish nothing.”

Councilman Ed Gore said he supports investigating to see if the intermediary is a township employee, but he said it would be walking a “fine line. Frankly, while I think somebody’s onto something there, if that person is not being named, there’s a reason. They may be protected by the feds. Who knows,” he said.